Zain Group, the pioneer of mobile telecommunications across the Middle East and Africa, announced its consolidated financial results for the nine-month and third-quarter period ended 30 September, 2014.

For the first nine months of 2014, Zain Group generated stable consolidated revenues of $3.3 billion (KWD921 million), while consolidated EBITDA for the period reached $1.4 billion (KWD 389 million) down 2%, reflecting a healthy EBITDA margin of 42.2%.

Consolidated net income reached $570 million (KWD161 million), reflecting a 2% Y-o-Y decrease and Earnings Per Share of $0.15 (KWD0.041) for the nine-month period.

While , for the third quarter of 2014, Zain Group recorded consolidated revenues of $1.04 billion (KWD294 million) down 6% when compared to $1.1 billion (KWD313 million) for the same period in 2013. EBITDA for the quarter reached $434 million (KwD123 million) compared to $471 million (KWD134 million), a decrease of 8%.

Net income for the quarter amounted to $163 million (KWD46 million), reflecting a 13% decrease compared to $186 million (KWD53 million) for the same period of 2013. Earnings Per Share for the quarter reached $0.05 (KWD0.012).

Group data revenues (excluding SMS and VAS) witnessed a healthy 16% growth for the first nine-months of 2014, forming 15% of the Group’s total revenues.

The recent appreciation of the US Dollar against Kuwaiti Dinar along with foreign currency revaluation losses predominantly in the Republic of Sudan and to a lesser degree in Iraq, cost the company $111.1 million for the first nine months of 2014 ($53.7 million last year) and $ 52.4 million specifically for the third quarter of the year (USD 21.4 million same quarter last year).

However , excluding the currency variance impact, net income would have increased by 7.5% for the nine months to 30 September 2014 and would have been up 3.9% for the third quarter of 2014.

In Iraq, due to a change in the definition of an “active customer” implemented by the country’s regulator, Zain’s customer base in Iraq decreased 9% from 14.5 million at the end of the third quarter 2013 to 13.3 million customers at the end of the third quarter 2014.

As mandated by its mobile operating licence, Zain Bahrain completed an Initial Public Offering of 15% of its share capital on 30 September, 2014. All new shareholders were allotted their shares on October 9, 2014 and the company expects shares to be traded on the Bahrain bourse during November 2014.

Zain Group serves 43.7 million customers as of 30 September 2014. Zain is the market leader in six of its eight operations by customer numbers.